Photography: Thou Shall Not Pass

These portraits were taken with a mobile phone during the 2016-2017 Mosul offensive in northern Iraq, at checkpoints and other places where ‘real’ cameras weren’t welcome. As moving around an active warzone is always heavily impeded by waiting for hours for permissions and clearance of press credentials, I tried to find ways to make meaningful photos in places where I was effectively stuck and forbidden from working while trying to move closer to the frontline. For some reason, taking pictures with big cameras at checkpoints and military bases is always considered dangerous or harmful, but cellphone photos are perceived as benign, thus allowed.